Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This morning I received the following letter from Mrs. Bernadette Quinlan and I wish to place it on the record of the House.

Shy, lovely, gentle, dependable, carefree, happy young lad, very much into his fitness (some words used by his fellow soldiers and close friends to describe Matt [Quinlan]). He loved the Army, and was proud to be a soldier. The last time I saw my brother Matt (Private Matthew Quinlan) was at the christening of our newborn baby sister Alice. I was very young at that time but I remember feeling so happy and proud looking up at him. There were 9 children in our family. Matt was the oldest and Alice was the youngest. That was the last time I ever saw him. Alice never met her brother Matt. She saw him once in her lifetime - when he was laid out on a mortuary slab in a small outback town in the Australian Bush after he put a gun to his head and shot himself to death. He spent his lifetime searching for peace but never found it. He packed his old battered suitcase with all his worldly possessions, all he had were the letters, cards and postcards he got from his Mother, Father and us, his brothers and sisters. He tidied his room, packed his old battered suitcase for the last time, and left this world because the pain was too much to bear. He remarked to a friend that he was getting things ready for a visit from his family in Ireland. He was 49 years of age but looked like an old man. Alice travelled for 2 days to get there to bury the big brother she had never met and hold his hand for the first and last time. He was laid out practically as he was found, blood-stained bandage on his head. A very upsetting and traumatising first meeting for our youngest sister.

Back in Ireland, I stood with my parents in the same church where I'd last seen Matt, and we had a funeral mass for him. But there was no coffin, no body, and no burial. My heart broke for my parents.

In Australia, Alice stood in the graveyard of the small town in the outback of the Australian bush, to attend Matt's burial, where the local community wrapped him in an Aboriginal blanket to keep him safe on his final journey. The big brother and the baby sister I'd last seen in our church, were united but briefly and under such heartbreaking conditions.

I appreciate that time is limited. Matt Quinlan was one of five of the Jadotville heroes who took his own life because of the way they were treated by colleagues in the Defence Forces. I was one of those colleagues. I never knew some of those men who went to Jadotville. I have asked time and time again that the 29 named soldiers be awarded distinguished service medals and military medals for gallantry. Eight of those old men are alive today. They are in their 80s. I met them in Trinity College, Dublin, last week. The letter Mrs. Quinlan wrote to me is quite a long letter. It is heartbreaking.We owe these men their medals. God damn it, they only cost a few cent each. I am sure the Deputy Leader will support me on this issue, but I ask that she tell the Taoiseach and the Minister that for as long as I have breath in my body and whomever is the Taoiseach and the Minister, I will fight for these men at every opportunity I get.